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Natalia's Story
'''Natalia's Story 'is a 1996 American-British animated musical adventure family comedy-drama film produced by Paramount Feature Animation and Amblin Entertainment. It is directed by Simon Wells and Frederik Du Chau and screenplay by Karey Kirkpatrick. The film stars the voices of Cathy Cavadini, Hayden Panettiere, Richard Kind, Dom DeLuise, Shani Wallis, and Tim Curry. It tells the story of a little girl named Natalia who leaves her parents to become a stars of her dreams, but she ends up in several misadventures by having encounters with many animals, while she is chased by Mr. Karter. The film was the first of four features produced primarily at the Paramount animation studio in London, the sixth and final animated feature produced by Steven Spielberg's UK-based Amblimation animation studio before its shut down and folded into DreamWorks Animation (which Paramount distributed their films from 2006 to 2012 and who would later be purchased by Universal's current parent company NBCUniversal in 2016) and Paramount and Amblimation's last collaborative project, as well as was marked one of the three last animated features that George Burke and Lana Ponce ever supervised before her retirement in 1994 during production, two years before the film's release. ''Natalia's Story ''was released on November 15, 1996 by Paramount Pictures in North America and Universal Pictures in other countries. On its theatrical release, it competed directly with Bros. Feature Animation Warner Bros. Feature Animation's ''Space Jam, released on the same day. It received mixed-to-positive reviews and was a box office success, making it Paramount's highest-grossing animated film at the time. Plot A woman named Natalia tells a story about her young self in 1934, she was raised by her parents. Few years later, Natalia tells her parent that she wants to be a stars of her dreams. Her mother tells her daughter that someday she will be a stars at an older age, like a singer. The next night, Natalia decided to run away from her parents to becoming a stars. After wandering through the city for shelter, Natalia meets a mouse named Averie, who used to live in a hole in her house. Natalia gets surprised to hear Averie talking. A female Irish Setter named Frida appears and tells Natalia that she had given her the ability to talk with animals, so she can have help in her journey. Natalia and Averie must get the train to go to San Francisco by train, with the help of two dogs, Ray and Case. After arriving San Francisco, Natalia, Averie, Ray and Case met a cat named Lenny, who know the way to be the star. When Natalia discover the office, the animals weren't allow go in there (except for Averie, who hides in Natalia's pocket). In the office, Natalia meet Mr. Karter, a greedy and cold-hearted agent who secretly want her to be his star forever. Meanwhile, Natalia's mother had noticed that her daughter missing. While Ray, Case and Lenny decide to search something to dinner in the Alley, they end up in a tussle with some alley rats, led by Conrad. However, they escape after Case trick them into the sewer. After Karter agreed with Natalia, she need the help with Averie needed Ray, Case and Lenny, along with the animals, to make Natalia to entertain an audience. After Natalia becoming the star, she is now becoming the greatest singer ever. Averie, Ray, Case and Lenny wanted to know about Natalia's real truth, but Natalia don't wanna tell them, which led Averie and Lenny leaving from her, Ray and Case. After Natalia's performance was ruined, Natalia become really upset and giving up as a star. When Natalia, Ray and Case find Averie and Lenny, where they meet Amina, the poodle, Natalia finally reveals her belief that she wanted her new place to stay and some place to stay, she decides to come back to her parent. However, Karter kidnaps Natalia and orders his Dobermans to attack the animals. Frida tells them goes into town to find Natalia's parents and tells every animals. Averie rallies all the animals to rescue Natalia from Karter, while Ray and Case give Natalia's dolls to her parents. Amina give the animals the ride in the cars and and a chase ensues throughout the streets and into the train tunnels. Averie, Case and Lenny attempt a rescue Natalia. However, Mr. Karter was about to kill Natalia and the animals, but they jump of the car leaving Karter died after his car drives straight into the path of an oncoming train. Back in New Orleans, Natalia returns and reconciles with her parents. Her mother is relieved that she is alive and explains she has been worried about her. Adult Natalia finishes narrating the story to her young daughter. The daughter asks, "Is that a true story, Mommy?" Natalia tells her that is how she remembers it, and her daughter is asleep. She then looks at the night sky and thanks Frida, wherever she is. Cast * Cathy Cavadini as Natalia ** Jane Seymour as Adult Natalia * Anndi McAfee as Averie the Mouse * Richard Kind as Lenny the Cat * Dom DeLuise as Ray the Dog * Steven Weber as Case the Dog * Tress MacNeille as Amina * Shani Wallis as Frida * Tim Curry as Mr. Karter * Gilbert Gottfried as Conrad the Rat Coming soon! Production Development Based on a concept by Amblin Entertainment founder Steven Spielberg, Natalia's Story originally began production at Universal Pictures under the title Stars Dream while Spielberg was still working on An American Tail and The Land Before Time with Don Bluth. However, the project was cancelled due to creative differences but was later revived and announced in December 1991 by Paramount Pictures, under the new title Natalia's Story, featuring Natalia, a human version of Tanya Mousekewitz from a sequel to Don Bluth's An American Tail, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, as the main protagonist of the film. PFA previously collaborated with Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio on Little Orphan Annie (1992) and Princess and Prince Adventures (1994). Simon Wells and Frederik Du Chau are set to direct the film. The film remains a separate continuity to An American Tail due to Paramount's hopes that the film would be an improvement over its sequel. When some crew of Paramount Feature Animation saw the test screening of An American Tail: Fievel Goes West in 1990, before it came out, some of the crew liked the film and its story, however, most of the crew disliked some part of the film and mostly some characters. But, when they saw the redesigned of Tanya Mousekewitz, whom Paramount found as the "only decent character" in the film due to her characteristics; George Burke and Lana Ponce described the character as "a younger cartoon version of Julie Young's daughter". The film's characters designer Uli Meyer drew a design artwork of Tanya Mousekewitz as a human, as George Burke, Lana Ponce and Steven Spielberg first look at the design. In December 1991, Paramount and Amblimation approved of the film's script and pre-production for the film, under the title Natalia's Story; as Steven Spielberg described the film as "spiritual successor to An American Tail" and Julie Young described the film as "mixed between An American Tail ''and ''All Dogs Go to Heaven". More coming soon! Casting Coming soon! Animation The film was animated locally by the main Paramount Feature Animation facility located in both Hollywood and London, and Amblimation facility in London, along with Wang Film Productions in Taiwan and Bardel Entertainment in Canada. Music The songs were written by Will Jennings, Barry Manilow, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. The film's score was composed by James Horner. An accompanying soundtrack was released on November 12, 1996. This is a list of musical numbers for the film: Release Marketing The film was accompanied with a promotional campaign with promotional licensees including Burger King. Short film The film's initial theatrical and video releases include Lena, Paramount Animation's first short film released in 1990 and Julie Young's first project for Paramount, in the United States. Before Lena, a disclaimer appears reading: "In 1990, Paramount Feature Animation produced its first film. Four years before Princess and Prince Adventures, Julie Young made her first project for Paramount". Home media Natalia's Story ''was released on VHS and LaserDisc by Paramount Home Video on March 11, 1997. MCA/Universal Home Video released the film on VHS internationally in countries such as the UK, Australia, and Japan. A DVD version was first made available on March 15, 2000. On October 10, 2003, the film was released as a 2-disc special edition DVD including newly made extras such as a commentary track and a featurette. It was released in widescreen on Blu-ray for the first time on February 4, 2014. On November 8, 2016, Paramount released another Blu-ray for ''Natalia's Story, to commemorate the film's 20th anniversary. Reception Coming soon! Media Sequels Coming soon! TV series Coming soon! Transcripts Main To see the main transcript of the film, click here. Trailers To see the transcript for the trailers of the film, click here. Category:Film Category:G-rated films